


The Sun and the Moon

by JulyFlame



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Character Study, Drabble Collection, Drabble Sequence, Founding of Konoha, Hokage Uchiha Madara, Non-Linear Narrative, Pre-Konoha Village, Senju Hashirama Doesn't Know He Has Issues, Senju Tobirama Has Issues, Senju Tobirama Needs a Hug, Song Lyrics, Timeline What Timeline, Uchiha Madara Has Issues, Uchiha Madara Needs a Hug, Uzumaki Mito Has Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:35:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 4,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28054746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JulyFlame/pseuds/JulyFlame
Summary: "I climbed up a mountain and looked off the edge/At all of the lives that I never have led"In which Madara does not leave Konoha.Inspired by songs from The Bravery's "The Sun and the Moon".
Relationships: Senju Hashirama & Senju Tobirama, Senju Hashirama & Senju Tobirama & Uchiha Madara & Uzumaki Mito, Senju Hashirama & Uchiha Madara, Senju Hashirama/Uzumaki Mito, Senju Tobirama & Uchiha Madara, Senju Tobirama & Uzumaki Mito, Uchiha Madara & Uzumaki Mito
Comments: 28
Kudos: 40





	1. Believe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tavina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tavina/gifts).



> This is a combination birthday/Christmas present to the ever lovely Tavina. 
> 
> She's very lucky and also extremely unfortunate it wasn't the Butsuma/Zetsu idea I was tossing about, because now that's not going to be a short thing.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "So give me something to believe  
> 'Cause I am living just to breathe  
> And I need something more  
> To keep on breathing for  
> So give me something to believe"

**Our Ship's Not Coming Back**

Mito meets him the first time during the initial marriage negotiations, if watching him can be called a meeting.

Hashirama pays his respects to her father, and is, at first glance, obsequious to his own father; he follows protocol entirely, not speaking up at all. A self-serious young man, a vain young shinobi with his hair worn long.

The second time she sees him, it is as the Senju are departing the island. He is laughing, careless, the others on guard, even here.

The third time, it is when she arrives on the shore of Fire.

There is no leaving.

**Do Our Time Like Pennies in a Jar**

It's a mess, disorganized chaos all around him and Tobirama cannot help his disdain.

None of them are planners, and few of their number have spent much time in the towns of Fire, much less the capital. Everyone has different ideas on how things should run or be organized; Hashirama has already declared that the Senju will have no compound; Madara demands walls for his people; the Sarutobi wish for somewhere central to the Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka.

The less said about the Inuzuka, the better.

Tobirama holds his tongue instead of addressing the matter. This idea will not last.

**Throw Our Roots Into the Floor**

Konohagakure grows and with each day so does Hashirama's delight with it. Yes, for now it is rough hewn buildings made from wood poorly cut by shinobi- none of them are carpenters- but there's so much promise.

The poorly joined large wood houses slowly give way to better made ones by skilled civilian carpenters who move to the village. Less improvised shelter and more homes for individual families or as part of clan compounds (except for the Inuzuka).

Eventually stonecutters and blacksmiths move to provide their labor as well.

Their village will last, with foundations of stone and iron.

Roots.

**The Beast is Just My Fear**

How do you address fear of something without words to put to it?

The clan grows, but it does not flourish. Even as walls go up around the site they chose for the village- a nightmare debate if there ever was, on their span, putting him on the same side as Tobirama- the Uchiha do not leave the walls of their own compound in the heart of the village unarmed.

It would not be so bad if they weren't the only ones to do it to the man.

Madara cannot convince them it's unnecessary when he is not sure himself.


	2. This is Not the End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I see, I can see you're so afraid.  
> Wear it like a silver hood - on you, even fear looks good.  
> I wish, I wish I had some words to give.  
> But all that I can think to say is I'll be with you everyday."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day two of Tavmas.

**Tell Me What You Can Even as You Wait for Death**

Tobirama and Madara are again arguing against Hashirama's latest plan together.

Hashirama laughs. "If this is how the two of you are now, Tobirama, I can't wait until I retire and Madara has to deal with you all the time."

Before Tobirama can reply, Hashirama's jaw clenches, and he grabs at his left arm, before moving his hand to his chest, frowning.

Madara bolts from the Hokage office, screaming for a medic-nin, Tobirama left staring. This cannot be happening.

Hashirama gives him a strained smile. "I believe in you, Tobirama. Have faith in everything."

He's dead before the medic-nin arrive.

**I Must Believe In More Than This**

"Are you afraid of dying?"

It's an innocent question, grounded in awfulness.

Uzushio is gone; a surprise attack that left only rubble and corpses.

Madara, more aged than she, delivered the news personally, instead of any of his assistants or Anbu. He projected his own obsession with familial ties and told her he had already sent teams out to seek any survivors and invite them to join Konoha. A rare folly of goodwill from him.

Kushina did not take it well. She clings to hope, she clings to fear.

So, Mito lies. "No, Kushina-chan."

Maybe they both will believe it.

**Not Even Earth Could Hold Us**

Madara is examining reports when Tobirama's unit hobbles in, exhausted. Their commander is not present, which is typical. The Senju has sent them ahead while he gets distracted elsewhere, no doubt, against protocol Tobirama came up with.

"I'm not playing his games," he says. "Leave and come back with your commander."

"We can't," Kagami answers.

"What?"

His clansman hesitates. "Tobirama-sama is dead."

A storm of feelings rises. "Kagami, go inform the Senju. Danzō, debrief me."

Danzō does not.

"Tobirama-sama appointed me as his replacement," Hiruzen speaks up.

Madara is going to bring Tobirama back to life to kill him personally.

**Not Even Life Controls Us**

Hashirama visits Madara one June evening, and after much convincing with begging and pleading, gets the man to go walk with him.

They end up on one of the bridges crossing the Naka River, pausing there as they watch the darting green lights over the water. It is firefly season.

One of the first things the Uchiha clan did within the village boundaries was construct a shrine, but Hashirama does not know how much Madara believes of things like spirits returning from the afterlife. Or even if it's a comfort.

"Maybe in the next life, it will be easier."

"Maybe."


	3. Every Word Is a Knife in My Ear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "A fool is a devil, and a devil's a fool  
> With a fork-tongue needle, and you got us all fooled  
> A monkey doing tricks, and we couldn't resist  
> If this isn't evil, then I don't know what is"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day three of Tavmas.

**Every Word From Your Mouth**

Hashirama finds it embarrassingly easy to prod at his brother and Madara. Both of them consider him so friendly they're confused at how he made it to adulthood in the first place, after all.

It's simple to come up with ridiculous proposals that get them fuming at him and on the same side arguing against him, and once they've completely solidified their opposition, he laughs his idea off, switching to something reasonable they will agree to.

Even Tobirama, who should know better from watching him _run their_ _clan,_ thinks it's just Hashirama being Hashirama.

His words are his favorite weapons.

**Every Thought In Your Head**

Madara begins to hate the paperwork Tobirama comes up with more than he hates Tobirama.

He was trained since before he can remember for the battlefield and for leading his clan. Not figuring out building regulations or which jōnin to send to the daimyō to play pet shinobi to secure funds.

His only battles these days are office ones, against Tobirama's eternal insistence on everything being regulated and part of a system. Reprieves are found in creating positions to deal with the paperwork and sending Tobirama to the capital.

Did he really think he wanted this not so long ago?

**You Got Us All Fooled**

It should not be him, Tobirama thinks, staring at Madara.

The Uchiha clan leader is staring blankly ahead as the ceremony begins, Sarutobi Sasuke speaking to those gathered below. All of the clan heads are flanking Tobirama, the Sarutobi head watching Sasuke with approval.

Madara looks unlike himself dressed in white, hair tied back in some vain attempt to make him look less threatening. This is not the man he knows from battle or makes children cry in his presence.

As Tobirama steps forward to set the Hokage hat on Madara's head, he whispers, "I'm watching you."

"I know," returned.

**If This Isn't Evil, Then I Don't Know What Is**

Mito is slowly introduced to the realities of the feud between the Senju and the Uchiha as she settles in.

It is both more complex and less complex than she knew. Careful, leading inquiries prove most of them do not particularly care for the feud, or even remember what caused it in the first place.

They go to battle because the Senju and the Uchiha fight each other.

Her husband is visibly frustrated at it, but now she sees he is biding his time.

His brother fuels it. For someone who cloaks themself in logic and reason, he is hateful.


	4. Bad Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "And I don't know where we belong  
> I think we grew under a bad sun  
> I know we're not like everyone  
> You and me, we grew under a bad sun"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fourth day of Tavmas.

**We are Lies like the Summertime**

Among the Senju, Mito hides herself.

In Whirlpool, among her clan, she was skilled enough to lead other shinobi. Her mastery of fuinjutsu gained her respect.

As Hashirama's wife, none of that matters.

She is expected to stay within their compound, not to fight, much less be involved in their feud.

She may act in defense; that is all.

The lack of freedom is stifling, and she begins to see how it marks Hashirama.

He is a better liar than she thought, concealing his frustrations at his father's decisions with smiles and comradery.

Mito learns to copy him, somewhat subdued.

**Spring We Are Such Fools**

Tobirama soon discovers the flaws to this heady dream of Hashirama's; to a man, none of them know what they are doing, and it makes fools of them all.

Assisting his brother in running the clan is one thing; running a _village_ is another.

It is underscored one meeting when the Nara clan head suggests that they do not need only skilled laborers, but should bring merchants into the village, instead of a central distribution system.

Madara's comment on if that means they need their own currency, too, distracts everyone.

He's ready to murder Madara when Hashirama excitedly suggests plumbing.

**Like Fall We Are False Prophets**

His first grandchild.

Tsunade is named with her Uzumaki heritage in mind, the ocean so many ri away. She is not given the clan's name though she is part of it; she will be a child of Konohagakure first.

When Madara arrives to bring his clan's congratulations, Hashirama presses the days-old infant into his once-rival's arms, to Madara and his daughter's surprise.

Tsunade's tiny hand ends up tangled in Madara's hair.

"See? She likes you already," Hashirama says. "Maybe you can be her sensei."

Madara snorts, quiet to not disturb the newborn. "Don't curse her like that."

It happens anyway.

**Like Winter We Are Cruel**

The reports from the front eat at Madara.

Attrition eats at them. They make no headway, barely keeping their ground.

Each report is easily summarized: They need more manpower.

Tobirama looks at him, unfeeling. "Activating the students will provide more genin for the front."

It's a mockery of their original dream; instead of keeping children out of battle, he will be sending them there personally.

"I will kill any jōnin that pointlessly endanger their charges."

After the first— and only— set of executions, Konoha's reputation for caring for its children is forged in iron and the blood of their enemies.


	5. Time Won't Let Me Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Time won't let me go  
> Time won't let me go  
> If you gave me back those years  
> I'd do it all better I swear  
> Time won't let me go"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the fifth day of Tavmas...

**I Am So Homesick Now for Someone That I Never Knew**

Hashirama returns home one day to a stranger in the house.

Not a stranger, he amends; the young man wears a Konoha hitai-ate proudly on his sleeve and is sitting next to his eldest daughter, listening with all his attention as she tells him something, their hands twined together on the kotatsu's surface. Mito and the rest of the children are comfortable with his presence.

He did not know someone was wooing his daughter.

"Tou-san!" his youngest says in delight, getting up to greet him.

It's not the young shinobi who is the stranger here, Hashirama realizes.

It is him.

**All These Precious Moments**

Mito keeps the Kyūbi bound up not only with her seals, lashed down within her body, but with all the love she has held in her life. Perhaps that decision was a mistake, but it was her own to make. She acted in defense of her home and family.

Even now, with some of her family dead and gone— Hashirama's was in retrospect fortunate, dying in the village he loved with a body left behind— she holds onto those memories tightly.

Mito's precious people— oh, so many— and her memories of them keep her company in her role as jailer.

**Where Was I When I Missed Mine?**

It is only as Tobirama grants his approval to the promising young chūnin wishing to marry Hashirama's youngest daughter that he realizes his own chance has passed him entirely.

In doing his best to help fulfill his brother's dream, he let his own hopes for a love match escape entirely.

Hashirama's death, so recent, is a reminder that he is not so young anymore. Tobirama could seek a matchmaker, but it would not be the same. Not while reminded of coming death, and any match suggested would be with someone his nieces' ages.

He does not need love that much.

**I'd Do It All Better I Swear**

Madara will not be his father.

He remembers thinking that when he shares the sake cup with his bride.

It turns out, over the years, that there are many ways to not be like Tajima.

Madara trains his children when he can, but he is not the one who leads them; a Hagoromo clan member is his eldest's jōnin-sensei. The second is part of a Yamanaka-led team. The third returns to the compound covered in slobber and tufts of ninken fur, trained by his academy sensei, an Inuzuka.

His father, for all his failures, had more time for them all.


	6. Tragedy Bound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "All her life, she's bound to lose  
> All her life, she's bound to lose"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the sixth day of Tavmas...

**Looking For Clues**

Madara does not meet Uzumaki Mito until the treaties are signed and the village is well under way.

He knew Hashirama had a wife from rumors that made it to the Uchiha clan; even Hashirama was not foolish enough to mention her on the battlefield or during their tenuous meetings.

Things are now settled.

Her dark eyes land on him, the tags hanging from her kanzashi completely still. His hand itches for his sword, a hard-gained instinct that has never served him wrong before.

Madara wonders if Hashirama is aware of how dangerous his wife is.

She hides it well.

**Wore Her Like a Crown**

Hashirama doesn't realize the influence Mito has, at first. He initially attributes the shift in his father's behavior to the _fact_ he is now married; Butsuma's line now shows promise of potentially being able to continue past his remaining sons. This does not change with the birth of a daughter.

After his father dies in battle he becomes more aware of it. There is immediate respect from the rest of the clan (if not necessarily from Tobirama).

Mito's steadiness and outward serenity give Hashirama prestige. His reaction to social affairs is to disarm himself.

She disarms others, makes them bow.

**A Hole in Her Skin**

Tobirama sees the difference in Hashirama's widow after the ceremony.

Mito is as crisply and perfectly dressed and ornamented as she ever is, even in mourning, surrounded by family; it is not only her children and grandchild but Uzumaki relatives, who travelled all this way to give their own respects.

While they have never been particularly warm towards each other, Tobirama recognizes this behavior all the same; this is the same face she wore when she arrived from Whirlpool.

She is protecting herself from the pain of emotions.

He is not the only one who notices; Madara also avoids her.

**Is There Anybody in There?**

Mito looks at herself in the mirror as she cares for her hair, the camellia oil providing its lustre.

There are few signs of aging to her face, the faintest of wrinkles present.

Hashirama had only the slightest marks of crow's feet and lines from his smiles before his death.

It has been so long now, since she left Whirlpool, and yet she barely sees the impact time should have had; the longevity of her clan did not extend to their looks.

It makes her wonder if she is still Mito, or the Kyūbi wearing Mito's skin.

She doesn't know.


	7. Fistful of Sand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "And I can hold you in my hands  
> But you slipped away like a fistful of sand  
> I can hold you in my hands  
> But you are gone, you are gone, you are gone"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the seventh day of Tavmas...

**I Can Touch Your Skin**

One of the few worst case scenarios Hashirama can think of comes true when the messenger arrives in the capital. The Kyūbi was sighted heading straight for Konoha.

The village is not far away from the beast's territory, and the Kyūbi used to be the only thing that could halt the battles between the Senju and Uchiha, forcing them to flee.

When the village comes into sight, there is no damage. Fear and uncertainty abound, Mito's name in the air.

Madara, exhausted, angry, and bandaged, forces him to go home, report brief.

There, Mito will not let him touch her.

**Squeeze the Life Back**

Tobirama remembers his words as a child. _Shinobi should repress their feelings._

After Itama's death, he started it, alone.

After the village's founding, he did his best to make it a rule of shinobi.

With Hashirama's death he finds himself at a loss.

Hashirama did not die in battle, but Tobirama cannot find it in himself to express himself, even privately. He wonders when he forgot how to cry.

His clansmen comment on his coldness, wordlessly in comparison to Hashirama.

"Tobirama-sensei?" Concern tinges Hiruzen's voice. "I need to tell Danzō. Where are we meeting?"

"The gates."

It is mission time.

**I Am Staring Straight Into Your Eyes**

Mito struggles in the months after sealing the Kyūbi into herself. Both with the vast ramifications the act has had and with keeping control.

She has never doubted herself before this, even as she turns away from Hashirama in their wedding bed, haunting their home like a yūrei, only tending wordlessly to their increasingly worried children.

Slowly, Hashirama returns home later and later, until he returns only late at night, when the children are asleep.

This lasts until one late morning he is forced back inside by Madara, door shut behind him.

Hashirama's fearful eyes meet hers. "I miss you."

**There Is Nothing I Can Do**

Uchiha Kannon is a beautiful woman, and one Madara does not wish to marry.

She does not want him, but another. It's almost unfortunate that she does not wish to marry him, either, but the arrangement is not up to them.

He does his best to treat her well, even knowing this, and she does her best to be an obedient wife.

The clash that takes his father's life turns out to be the one that takes that forbidden lover away.

He comforts her as she sobs into his shoulder, eyes newly red with one tomoe.

So much for mercy.


	8. Angelina

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Nothing here is set in stone  
> Nothing's ever set in stone  
> Everything I have some day will fall apart and fade away"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the eighth day of Tavmas...

**You Are the Sun and the Moon**

Hashirama tries to ignore the increasing adoration directed towards him within the village. With time, as hidden villages are founded elsewhere, "God of Shinobi" becomes synonymous with his name.

However much he enjoys the idea of perfect beauty, having it directed at himself, being treated less a man and something more, is uncomfortable.

Both Madara and Tobirama provide counterbalance, unafraid of this reputation; Madara appears to take it as a new role in life, to humble him. Tobirama ignores it, seeking greater heights.

At home, his family does not care. There, he is only husband and father. All he needs.

**Every Song I Ever Sang**

Mito realizes with the fourth try to soothe their second child to sleep that the lullaby she is succeeding with is not one of her own, one of the many songs she brought with her from Whirlpool in her heart and head.

It is Hashirama’s.

At some point in the past few years, he has grown roots not just in this village, but in Mito as well.

She walks to where Hashirama is sitting with Tobirama and Madara, chabudai covered in paperwork, and presses a kiss to his forehead. The other two look away when he kisses her back, beaming.

**Nothing's Ever Set in Stone**

Madara is a grandfather.

This is, the thought occurs to him, as he looks down at the still squashed and red face peeking out of the blanket, _terrible_.

It never occurred to him that this could possibly happen. His own grandfather died in battle before Madara was born, without the chance to grow old, as had Tajima.

He had not expected things to _change_ , even though his first child was born in the village not long after Hashirama was declared Hokage.

"Have you decided on the name?" Kannon asks.

"Mikoto. Unless O-tou-san disagrees..."

"No," he answers, distracted.

Time changes things.

**Everything I Have Someday Will Fall Apart and Fade Away**

Tobirama can see the rot set into the ideas and systems he pushes forward the moment they are left to the hands of others.

Nothing runs the way he intends them to, from the passports— not wise begging Daimyō-dono for special paper— the academy— the sensei do not understand the proposed curriculum— to the police force— first laughed at and then shouted at by Madara when he suggests the Uchiha clan run it solely.

Futility.

All that stays the same are the various ninjutsu he formulates, solidified.

Tobirama cannot see how anything he does will matter, when time changes things.


	9. Split Me Wide Open

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Split me wide open, and cut me in two  
> There's nothing that I could ever hide from you  
> Oh, you always knew me  
> You're the only one who knew me"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the ninth day of Tavmas...

**You See Right Through Me**

Despite not meeting Madara until they were older children, Hashirama feels a connection with him as strong as he had with his brothers, as strong as he has with Tobirama. Perhaps it played a role in their being equals on the battlefield, but here, now, it emerges in other ways.

For all that Madara is not a people person, is argumentative and choleric, aggressively prickly, he is much more capable of scraping away Hashirama’s niceties to determine how genuine he is being than most people are. Hashirama’s friendliness is his only defense against this, the only thing Madara cannot breach.

**Is Nothing Sacred?**

Mito can tell none of her children or grandchildren will be able to hold the fox. She is getting older.

Whatever regrets she has, the Kyūbi cannot be allowed to roam free again. Not when it will immediately wreak its vengeance upon the village.

She confers with Madara; they send a request with a trusted messenger to Uzushiogakure, a home Mito has never seen.

The jōnin returns with a child.

Mito cannot do this to an innocent. They explain. It is her choice.

Kushina-chan decides. "If I'm gonna be Konoha's jinchūriki, I want to be its Hokage, too, you know."

**Gentle Eyes Like a Razor Blade**

Madara wonders if the other four men at the five-sided table are aware of how close they are to riling Hashirama, standing behind him.

Kage.

Of all the ninja villages that have risen in the past years, these five men have not only declared themselves powerful enough to be self-declared shadows- shinobi among shinobi, power behind their daimyō\- but have proved themselves able to keep the title. The villages in smaller countries do not, cannot; either too weak to remain or too strong for their daimyo to allow them.

Hashirama smiles and bows anyways. His eyes, crinkled, hide his strength.

**You're the Only One Who Knew Me**

Tobirama did not realize how lonely he would be without Hashirama.

Lonely.

The idea is strange, even as he is aware it describes him.

Their family was not whole for very long, after all. From adolescence through adulthood, Hashirama was all he had, and his brother’s marriage separated them further, more than the oddity of Mokuton ever did.

And yet, Hashirama was his only lasting connection, in spite of their clan, and then Konoha.

Tobirama is unable, unwilling, to make himself known to anyone else.

Mito’s attempts are always halting, and to Madara he will always be his brother’s killer.


	10. Above and Below

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "There's more above us and below  
> I must believe  
> Stranded with this bitch called hope  
> It keeps me here  
> When all I wanna do is go  
> It keeps me here  
> When all I wanna do is disappear"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the tenth day of Tavmas, the angst returns.

**Stranded With This Bitch Called Hope**

Only Madara and Mito are left; Hashirama and Tobirama have been dead for years now, but today they truly are the last, with Yamanaka Inomaru's death. No one else there for the early agreements and treaties lives.

She stands beside him, representing Hashirama and providing support when Madara tires. Though the years eat at him, no one doubts the Nidame's ability to protect the village.

Inomaru's grandson weeps at the grave.

"Inomaru was a practical man," Madara remarks.

Inoichi's green eyes look up, surprised.

"He joined this village for you."

When did he offer hope?

Somehow, it works.

Mito smiles.

**All I Wanna Do is Disappear**

Mito is at their eldest daughter's home, Tsunade gleefully telling her a story, when the news arrives, brought by a fresh genin, breathless. Dread rolls from him, making her uneasy.

Hashirama is dead, the cause unknown.

They are still investigating.

Her own feelings churn and roil and it is all she can do to press down on them, as upset spreads through the room, enough to make the Kyūbi stir.

She excuses herself when Tsunade starts crying.

Mito lashes herself down with seals of chakra; she can keep the Kyūbi under control but she is unable to hide for long.

**There's Nothing Left to Keep Me Here**

Though he tells them what is happening, Tobirama holds back.

There should be no Kumo-nin here; their forces are far north or east, clashing with Iwa’s eastern forces or fighting against Kiri’s attempts to breach the Lightning’s shores.

Kinkaku’s group is deadly, the man able to injure Madara. If they travel any deeper into Fire, the treaty with Kumo will not hold. It must.

The six youths with him aren’t hardened the same way he was. Only one expects death in battle; only one thinks sacrifice works.

“Return to Konoha. I will distract them.”

Danzō’s fear follows him to death.

**The Seething Earth**

Tobirama’s sudden demand of democracy seeds an anger in Hashirama, one he would barely notice himself if it were not for Tobirama.

His brother, shameless even when guilty, avoids him entirely after the meeting.

It takes almost the full day for him to realize that not only is he is actually furious, Madara has disappeared, not even his clan knowing where he is.

Hashirama’s plans were upturned within hours, by something Tobirama disdains in.

He finds Madara looking over the village.

“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t.”

“You don’t know?” Mocking.

The anger rises.

The fight after knocks it from them both.


	11. The Ocean

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I climbed up a mountain, and looked off the edge  
> At all of the lives that I never have led.  
> There's one where I stayed with you, across the sea.  
> I wonder, do you still think of me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this, we're done.

**All of the Lives That I Never Have Led**

Madara knows he's dying.

It is strange to think that not only has he become old— ancient by shinobi standards— it appears he will die in his bed, surrounded by family.

It feels like it was not long ago that he nearly left the village permanently, in a black cloud of passion and righteousness. Seething. 

Only Hashirama's anger— such a rare thing, even in battle— was what stopped him. Prevented him from lashing out, feeling betrayed. Leaving the clan.

He drifts off to sleep, dreaming of younger days, when Izuna was beside him. Of other lives. 

He does not wake.

**All of These Moments Are Lost in Time**

The memories come unexpectedly, as Tobirama's blood spills out.

_"Anija!"_

_Hashirama has returned._

_Kawarama toddles behind him, and Itama squeals excitedly in Haha-ue's sling._

Tobirama breathes heavily, his sword blood slicked, he has survived his first battle. He looks up at Hashirama, fearful. 

_“She doesn’t like me,” Hashirama wails, returning from Whirlpool._

_“She doesn’t know you yet.”_

“Tobirama! I’m going to be a father!”

_“Why not her?”_

_“I’m busy.”_

Hashirama is in pain in front of him, struggling to breathe.

Or is it Tobirama struggling for breath?

His eyes close.

_“There you are, Tobirama.”_

"Anija..."

He smiles one last time. 

**Caught in my Head Like a Thorn on a Vine**

Hashirama sits upon the outcrop, looking over the village.

It has not just grown, it is _growing_. Even as he watches, a new compound is under development for one more clan that has requested to join them, and another level of additions is being added to buildings on a main street. It will make the upper stories of Konoha a maze, but shinobi prefer that. 

He cannot look away, even as he senses Madara approach.

"Pride is a poison, Hokage-sama." Madara's voice holds rare humor.

"We achieved this, Madara." He can't keep the wonder from his voice.

"We did."

**The Ocean Rolls Us Away**

Alone in the cabin, Mito does her hair by herself. They are expected to reach the shore of Fire some time today, if the winds stay true. 

There, she will be married and join the Senju clan as their heir's bride. Hashirama.

Once it satisfies her, she sets out her suzuri-bako. It is beautiful, mother-of-pearl and lacquer. A final gift for a fuinjutsu master. A beloved daughter. 

Fuinjutsu cannot grant wishes or dreams, but she pours her chakra into the brush and ink as she draws the characters out.

She ties those wish-filled seals for the future to her kanzashi.


End file.
